2017: The year in boxing

January 6, 2018

2017 was a great year for boxing which saw some great fights and the spectacle that was Mayweather-McGregor.

The year started off with the talk about Mayweather-McGregor as the UFC’s lightweight champion stirred the pot by going on a rant on Instagram where he wrote “F*** the UFC.” Dana White warned that if Conor went on without the UFC it would be an “epic fall.”

January also saw Al Haymon get a court victory with a dismissal of Golden Boy’s Antitrust lawsuit. In a ruling which did not include oral argument, the Judge determined that Golden Boy did not come fort with genuine issues of fact to support its claims. Most importantly, and a word of caution for the Plaintiffs in the UFC Antitrust lawsuit, the Judge reiterated that the antitrust laws protect competition, not competitors.

Although Golden Boy suffered the loss in court, it inked a deal with ESPN with 42 fights airing on ESPN starting in March 2017. As the prevailing party, they requested legal costs in the amount nearing $35,0000. Golden Boy appealed the dismissal but it appears that the sides resolved the case as the appeal was dismissed by agreement of the parties.

The GGG-Daniel Jacobs PPV drew between 130-150K PPV buys. GGG’s next PPV appearance against Canelo would draw much higher as the draw drew 1.2 million buys. The fight also had a higher price tag than usual: $79.99 HD. A rematch for May 2018 seems imminent.

March saw the second highest-rating for network viewership as Keith Thurman faced Danny Garcia in the battle of unbeatens on CBS. The fight drew 5.1 million viewers while the overall telecast drew 2.7 million viewers.

After going through a lot of money, the viability of the PBC obtaining a media rights deal was brought into question. Its deal with Spike TV ended but the organization found a home on FS1.

In 2017, it seemed as those everyone applied for a boxing license: Conor, Nate Diaz, Cyborg…

Also in June, Top Rank announced that it had a deal with ESPN to air fights with the first one being Manny Pacquiao fighting Jeff Horn in Australia on July 1st. The debut earned big numbers as Pacquiao lost a controversial decision to Horn.

July saw a 4-city tour to promote the Mayweather-McGregor bouts. It was an ambitious tour that fans clamored to be a part. It was announced that the PPV price would be $99.95 HD.

The Money Fight drew huge numbers and was a big financial success. We wrote about it here. The event had streaming issues on both UFC Fight Pass and Showtime platforms. As you might expect, there were lawsuits which are still matriculating through the court system.

Despite the big event, HBO ran an event featuring Miguel Cotto and it did well considering as it drew 730,000 viewers.

Capitalizing on the publicity of The Money Fight, announced an ESPN deal which will include airing its fight library on an OTT service that will launch in 2018.

In September, Magomed Abdusalamov settled with the state of New York for $22 million for injuries sustained in a fight in 2013. Abdusalamov was left with a brain injury and paralysis due to improper conduct and lack of training by the New York State Athletic Commission.

In December, Showtime announced Mayweather-McGregor drew 4.3 million domestic PPV buys. This is off from the 6.7 million Dana White had stated. After hearing of the announcement, White took issue with Showtime’s numbers.

One of the bigger stories to watch going into 2018 is the announcement by Dana White that he will be promoting boxing. Zuffa Boxing, a t-shirt worn by White during The Money Fight press tour, was a hint that White was up to something. White made it official late in the year. He indicated that he was meeting with Floyd Mayweather. Despite stating that he will never work with Showtime again, he said he would be willing work with other promoters with the exception of Bob Arum.